Miniaturization of computing devices has enabled small form-factor devices, such as smart phones and tablets, to feature computing power that rivals desktop and laptop computers. Many of the components of these smaller devices are being designed for multiple uses, such as for smart phones and large computing devices. Wearable devices, or wearables, and Internet of Thing (IoT) devices are also becoming popular. The ability to scale a component for multiple uses is a desirable characteristic.
Because of this desired scalability, the components making up the computing device or the printed circuit board (PCB) are continuously scrutinized to recover board or component real estate and, ultimately, make the device or board smaller and smaller.
PCB real estate has seen a reduction of almost 50% from generation to generation of these conceptual systems. Fully functioning boards having measurements of 40 mm×100 mm, and even smaller, 51 mm×28 mm, are in existence today. Some boards enable both board-to-board and in-dock connections to be made.
Two components that consume some of the board real estate are connectors and alternating current (AC) capacitors. Connectors are used to couple two circuits or two boards, in which current flows between the boards through the connectors. AC capacitors isolate the direct current (DC) bias settings between two circuits, such as those used in input/output (I/O) interfaces such as the Universal Serial Bus (USB) 3.0/3.1, enhanced Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCIe) 2/3 and Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) 2/3.
Thus, there is a continuing need to have an improvement to these devices such that they consume less real estate on the board or component and therefore overcome the shortcomings of the prior art.